Safety container

ABSTRACT

A container having safety means to prevent children from gaining access to the contents of the container. The safety means is comprised of a protective covering having an access passage arranged therein through which an adult&#39;&#39;s finger can enter and a closure-closure opening mechanism for the container.

United States Patent Trotta [451 Oct. 17,1972

[ SAFETY CONTAINER 21 Appl. No.: 118,876

[52] U.S. Cl. ..206/42, 215/9, 215/41, 206/15, 222/182 [51 1 lat. Cl. ..B65d 55/02 [58] Field of Search ..215/9, 41; 206/42, 1.5; 200/42; 222/182; 150/.5

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,554,366 l/l97l Corll ..206/42 as l 31 Z15 L 7 Z5 27 3,578,193 5/1971 Steiner .Q ..215/9 Primary Examiner-George T. Hall Attorney--Morgan, Finnegan, Durham & Pine [57] ABSTRACT A container having safety means to prevent children from gaining access to the contents of the container. The safety means is comprised of a protective covering having an access passage arranged therein through which an adults finger can enter and a closure-closure opening mechanism for the container.

9 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEDum 17 m2 INVENTOR. EPA/m 4. 74 07774 A rive/v02:

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is related to a patent application entitled SAFETY CAP FOR AEROSOL SPRAY CANS, Ser. No. 118,875, filed on Feb. 25, 1971, contemporaneously with this application, by the inventor of this application.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This application relates to a safety device for preventing infants and young children from gaining access to potentially dangerous articles. In particular, this invention is directed to a composite safety container adapted to accommodate commercial products such as conventional household products which could be dangerous to infants and children.

2. Description of the Prior Art In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the fatality and injury rate among children due to accidental poisoning. In many cases, the poisoning results from inhalation or ingestion of staple household products which are packaged in conventional containers. For example, volatile detergent and laundry products are packaged in containers having the traditional snap-on or screw-on top. These conventional containers do not militate against access by children or even infants.

Efforts have been made to design and develop safety devices which will prevent children from gaining access to potentially hazardous packaged products. In general, these efforts have resulted in developing safety containers which have safety closures that can be characterized as either intellectual teasers or strength applications.

The intellectual teasers have the defect of being appealing to children by the very fact that they present a challenge to the typically inquisitive child. In addition, these intellectual teasers have proven to be a nuisance to adults for a variety of reasons ranging from the difficulty in performing the alien maneuvers to the inability of some to comprehend the functions.

The strength application devices present obvious problems to the physically handicapped.

Both the intellectual teasers and strength application devices suffer from the additional defect that their difficulty in removal discourages replacement once the initial removal has been successfully performed.

Various other closure type devices have been ad vanced to solve the problem of child safety. The prior art includes closures which require the alignment of parts fixed in a particular registry to afford separation and removal. The prior art also includes the press and release type mechanical closures.

Applicants safety container has provided an integrally formed safety means which does not require the removal and replacement of a safety cap. Other safety containers which do not employ separable safety caps exist in match boxes (Berry, US Pat. No. 1,821,698) and protective switch structures (Van Hook, US. Pat. No. 3,109,900). However, these prior art devices are not suitable for use as containers for conventional household products such as detergents and pills.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a composite container adapted to accommodate liquids or pills. The structure of the composite container comprises a storage section configured similarly to the conventional bottle or pill box and specifically formed closure means, closure actuating means and an access passage to the closure actuation means. The closure is in the form of an oversized plug. The lower surface of the closure is sized to extend beyond the periphery of the container opening and is provided with a recess in the shape of the opening of the container. An attachment member extends from the container to the plug to retain the plug to the container and to provide means to prevent opening of the plug by prying upwardly on the exposed periphery of the plug. The means for actuating the closure is a pivotally mounted lever, one edge of which is arranged in abutment with the trailing edge of the closure. The other edge or rear edge of the lever means is presented for actuation by a single finger. The container is also provided with a protective sheath which covers the actuation lever and extends rearwardly to a remote location and defines a passage. The passage length and cross-sectional area are chosen to allow insertion of the index or middle finger of an adult. The length and width thereby prevents an infant from reaching in and gaining access to the closure actuation lever. The passage is also provided with a curved contour which enables transversal thereof only by plurally articulated members.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the container of the subject invention designed to accommodate liquids;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional elevational view of the container of FIG. 1 taken through line 2-2;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the closure member of FIG. 1 taken through line 3-3;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the container of the subject invention designed to accommodate pills or tablets.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The container of the subject invention has application as a container for liquids, pills, tablets or crystals. FIGS. 1-3 depict the container configured to accommodate tablets, liquids and crystals while FIG. 4 depicts the pill container.

The liquid container 3 of FIG. 1 is comprised of a body section 5, closure assembly 7 and the protective sheath 9.

The body section 5 of the container 3 is essentially conventional in design and can be of any configuration particularly suitable or convenient for accommodating the particular contents. However, practice has found that locating the opening 11 of the container at the front or leading edge is preferable.

As best seen in FIG. 2, the opening 11 is provided with a closure assembly 7 comprised of a plug-type closure 13, an attachment member 15 and a closure actuation member 17. The plug-type closure 13 is provided with an oversized base 19 and a recess 21 configured to conform to the container opening 11. The member 15 is attached at one end 23 to the container body 5 and extends to the periphery of the lower surface 19 of the closure 13. The member is sized to extend only from the point of attachment to the container body 5 to the closure 13 and to exert a positive force on the closure 13 to insure against inadvertent opening. In practice it has been found desirable to provide the container 3 with a neck 25 that extends from the body 5. The member 15 can then be attached to the container at the juncture of the neck 25 and the body 5.

The actuation member 17 of the closure assembly, best seen in FIG. 3, is a lever pivotally mounted at a point 27 located behind the closure 13. The leading edge 29 of the lever 17 is arranged to abut the lower surface 19 of the closure 13 and the rear surface 31 of the lever 17 extends to a location wherein unimpeded actuation thereof by a finger can be performed. In practice it has been found that the sheath 9 should terminate in a membrane 33 which attaches directly to the upper front surface of the lever 17.

The container 3 is provided with a sheath or covering 9 that extends from the area just behind the closure 13 to a finite rearward location. The inner surface of the sheath 9 defines a passage 35 through which access to the actuation lever 17 can be realized. The passage 35 is sized to enable an adults index or middle finger to reach the actuation lever 17, but to prevent access by a childs finger. In practice, it has been found that the passage 35 should be in the range of 2 to 2% inches long and have a cross-sectional area of three-fourths to 1% square inches. The passage is also contoured to prevent insertion of a stiff object which can be used to actuate the lever. The contour is essentially an arc greater than 40. Thus, only a plurally articulated member such as a finger can traverse the passage.

It has been found that the composite container 3, including the sheath 9 can either be integrally formed or assembled from several parts.

The container 4 of FIG. 4 is provided with a body section 6 adapted to accommodate pills, capsules or other similar objects. Again, the precise container configuration is a matter of choice and will to a large extent be dictated by the contents thereof and the ultimate application for the contents.

The closure 13, closure actuation lever 17, the protective sheath 9 and the passage 35 are virtually identical to the like parts depicted in FIGS. 1-3. Similarly, the function of each of the parts is the same. For illustrative purposes, the member 16 is shown extending from the container neck to the closure 13. This is an alternative form of the member, but again the member 16 should be sized to retain the closure 13in the closed position to prevent opening thereof when a force is applied to the exposed lower surface of the closure 13.

In operation, both the pill container and the liquid container perform similarly. As can best be seen in FIG. 2, opening of the container 3 is realized by the insertion of an adults index or middle finger into the passage 9, and depressing the rear surface 31 of the lever 17. This operation produces an upward force on the forward surface 29 of the lever 17, which force is transmitted to the closure 13 to provide the necessary force to remove the closure 13 from the opening 11. The member 15 attaches the closure 13 to the container 3 and the container 3 can then be oriented in any position to discharge the contents. Closure of the container 3 is achieved by simply placing the closure 13 on the opening 11. This operation necessarily returns the rear edge of the closure 13 in abutment with the leading edge 29 of the lever 17.

I claim:

1. A container comprised of:

a body section to accommodate the container contents, which body section has a discharge opening formed therein;

a plug-type closure;

means to fixedly attach the plug-type closure to the bottle;

actuation lever means to open the closure; and

a safety sheath adapted to extend from the closure to a finite remote position and define a passage whereby access to the actuation lever means through the passage is afforded to an adult but not a child.

2. A container as in claim 1 wherein the plug-type closure has a lower surface sized to extend beyond the periphery of the discharge opening and a recess configured to the shape of the container opening.

3. A container as in claim 1 further comprising a neck terminating in the closure opening, and a lower rear extension on the closure and wherein the actuation lever means is a pivotally mounted lever located in the passage defined by the sheath and having the leading edge thereof in abutment with the bottom of the lower rear extension on the closure.

4. A container as in claim 1 wherein the means to maintain the closure to the container is an attachment member sized to conform tightly to the contour of the bottle and exert a positive closing force on the closure.

5. A container as in claim 3 wherein the passage is between 2 and 2% inches in length and between threefourths and 1 /2 inches in cross-sectional area.

6. A container as in claim 5 wherein the passage is provided with a curved contour defined by an are greater than 40.

7. A container as in claim 6 wherein the container is adapted to accommodate liquids.

8. A container as in claim 6 wherein the container is adapted to accommodate tablets.

9. A container as in claim 6 wherein the container is integrally formed. 

1. A container comprised of: a body section to accommodate the container contents, which body section has a discharge opening formed therein; a plug-type closure; means to fixedly attach the plug-type closure to the bottle; actuation lever means to open the closure; and a safety sheath adapted to extend from the closure to a finite remote position and define a passage whereby access to the actuation lever means through the passage is afforded to an adult but not a child.
 2. A container as in claim 1 wherein the plug-type closure has a lower surface sized to extend beyond the periphery of the discharge opening and a recess configured to the shape of the container opening.
 3. A container as in claim 1 further comprising a neck terminating in the closure opening, and a lower rear extension on the closure and wherein the actuation lever means is a pivotally mounted lever located in the passage defined by the sheath and having the leading edge thereof in abutment with the bottom of the lower rear extension on the closure.
 4. A container as in claim 1 wherein the means to maintain the closure to the container is an attachment member sized to conform tightly to the contour of the bottle and exert a positive closing force on the closure.
 5. A container as in claim 3 wherein the passagE is between 2 and 2 1/2 inches in length and between three-fourths and 1 1/2 inches in cross-sectional area.
 6. A container as in claim 5 wherein the passage is provided with a curved contour defined by an arc greater than 40*.
 7. A container as in claim 6 wherein the container is adapted to accommodate liquids.
 8. A container as in claim 6 wherein the container is adapted to accommodate tablets.
 9. A container as in claim 6 wherein the container is integrally formed. 